Fishermen, Regulators Brace for Spring Herring Moratorium
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Alewives, one of the great harbingers of spring, have returned to
Vineyard waters.
But there is a crucial difference this year: the state of
Massachusetts has barred people from catching or possessing these
anadramous fish, which return from the ocean to spawn in freshwater
ponds.
Concerned about a precipitous decline in herring, the state has banned their harvest in Massachusetts for the next three years.
Also known as alewives, herring is the most valued bait fish in Vineyard waters.
The closure, which affects at least 100 herring runs along the Massachusetts coast, ironically comes at a time when Vineyard towns are taking steps to revive and improve their runs.
On an open sea deck, with the rolling waves of Georges Bank a mere eight feet away, Jon Brodziak cuts, and with tweezers takes a bone from each of the two inner ears of a haddock.
He places them in a small envelope for future study.
Then he does it again with another haddock. And again.
The bone is the otolith, which is used to tell the age of the fish; it is a far better measure than length.
Mr. Brodziak, along with several other scientists, is in the middle of a six-hour shift on the Albatross IV, in the pitch black night on the open ocean.
Linda Despres, the chief scientist aboard the Albatross IV, has a
haunting memory of visiting Georges Bank as a 23-year-old scientist.
"I have this picture in my mind of Georges Bank at night and
seeing the lights of over 50 ships going back and forth across the
horizon," she says.
The old wooden sailboat up on blocks inside the shed at the
Martha's Vineyard Historical Society in Edgartown doesn't
look like much.
The white lapstrake boat, less than 20 feet in length, has not been
in the water since it was brought to the society in December 1936 from
Menemsha Creek. The paint has come off in many places. There is little
chance she will ever float again.
The question of how cod stocks fell so low in the waters off New
England is almost as perplexing as the question of how to bring about
recovery.
The favorite reason - too much fishing pressure - is
followed by other explanations, including changes in ocean temperature
and degradation of the environment. Perhaps it is a combination of these
things.
Pinpointing the cause or causes of plummeting cod stocks is key to
their rejuvenation.
